What a movie! Fantastic script, direction, music, locations and the performances from Hugo Weaving, Tom Russell and Anita Hegh are top notch. Saw it @ Adelaide Film Fest, right up there will Samson and Delilah. This is a must see people!
sharewhilst I would agree with you in regards to "... direction, music, locations and the performances from Hugo Weaving, Tom Russell and Anita Hegh ...",
I have to say that this Australian drama, like so many other Australian dramas made before it lacks credibility when it comes to actual story.
Why create a drama that simply goes through a human interest or human condition meander just for the sake of it?
It's been done to death, especially in the now painfully obvious 'Australian style' which is monotonously trotted out Australian drama after Australian drama.
It's as if many Australian film makers are deliberately chasing the manufacture and duplication of a distinctive 'Australian style' rather than digging through and truly exploring a story to get out of it what they could.
A well written script doesn't mean that the story has been mined and explored. 'Last Ride' has hardly been touched beyond the surface, similarly with Jindabyne (2006), a lot of great talent but in the end a enormously sad lost opportunity; a shameful lost opportunity.
The manneristic following of a perceived 'Australian style' isn't enough and never will be.
That is one of the most insightful posts I have ever read in this place. Thanks for putting into words what I so often feel about 'Australian' films.
bigtonk
Yes good points trout303 and they seem to echo what a lot of reviewers have been saying about the film.
But I really connected with this film. I can appreciate that there wasn't a great amount of "story" in this film but I guess I was drawn to it's atmosphere and it really had me intrigued from start to end. I think Australian films do tend to be more revolved around character studies and this is a prime example of that. I guess, as an audience, it comes down to what you want to see from a film and for me 'Last Ride' impressed.
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As an American who often enjoys the sorts of character-driven films Australian directors are so great at making, I get tired of these sorts of complaints. What's wrong with writing nuanced scripts about complex individuals that don't conform to iimplausibly pithy plot dynamics? American directors, by contrast, seem to have forgotten how to write scripts, create realistic characters and tell stories that aren't sequels, prequels, comic adaptations or remakes of bad TV series.
I don't perceive any sort of derivative "Australian style", certainly not a boring, overly-mannered one. Jindabyne was unsatisfying because it misunderstood its source materials, trying to conflate a simple story about casual acts of carelessness into a bloated parable on race relations. Last Ride remains much truer to its source material, though it substantially expands the story to make it more cinematic. It's not supposed to be a strict thriller, and the viewer is supposed to have teased out certain hidden backstory events before they're revealed. It's not trying to shock so much as to involve the viewer in its characters' plight, and asking them to question their initial judgments. If this sort of thing bores you, there are plenty of uncomplex American blockbusters about superheroes and giant robots in Australian cinemas. And the fact that Australians seem to be more interested in watching these films than the much-better Australian films being released this summer will only make things harder for those films to be distributed internationally. Believe it or not, there are plenty of people around the world starving for complex, thoughtful low-budget films like Last Ride. We've had enough of the crap Hollywood keeps force-feeding us. That we're not a huge marketing niche is more the pity.
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You seem to be suggesting that I would prefer the films produced in Hollywood?
There is a whole world of cinema out there. Go take a broader look.
Well said - from another Yank who loves Australian cinema and thoroughly enjoyed Last Ride. I don't think anyone does these gritty, slice-of-life films better. Really suprised to hear that Australians prefer our mostly cruddy stuff. Guess the grass looks greener on the other side of the world.
I kill for Zardoz
There is a lot of subtext in this film. It doesn't need to be spelled out entirely.
This film is about a child learning his own place in the world and its explored through the choices he makes.
What else needed to be said in this movie exactly? Its very easy to through labels onto things like "it only touches the surface" or whatever.
Also the best cinematography/lighting I've seen in a long time.
shareI was pleasantly surprised by the sublte performances of the two Aboriginal Park Rangers - in Australian films the aboriginal is often portrayed as an over-the-top Wise Man to rival Yoda, with a moral or environmental lesson to the White Man is every utterance. The fact that Max beguilingly played on their heartstrings with the reference to a 'real bush experience' and then won them over with a cup of tea was entirely authentic
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